Thirteen foreign players, including short corner specialist Sohail Abbas of Pakistan, will take part in the Premier Hockey League, billed as the mega hockey event of the year, starting at the Gachibowli hockey complex here from January 13.

"We have made many innovations and the new format will provide a different kind of dynamics on the field," Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) President, K P S Gill said while releasing the list of PHL Tier-I teams on Wednesday.

Five teams -- Hyderabad Sultans with Dilip Tirkey as captain, Bangalore Hi-Fliers led by Arjun Halappa, Sher-e-Jalandhar with Gagan Ajit Singh at the helm, Maratha Warriors led by Viren Rasquinha and Chennai Veerans headed by Ignace Tirkey -- will be playing the month-long round robin league matches, he said.

Two more foreign players are likely to join the league, Gill said adding, next year no country (hockey playing) will go unrepresented as our efforts are to popularise hockey through live telecast and increasing frequency of the matches to give more exposure to players and viewers as well.

For the first time, players will be getting appearance money in hockey, Gill said but held back the exact amount to be paid to foreign players.

The incentive for Indian players was earlier announced with the skippers getting Rs one lakh each.

Infusing more attraction into the league, a total prize money of Rs 71 lakh is on offer of which Tier-I winners will pocket Rs 30 lakh and runners up Rs 10 lakh.

Speaking on the format, Gill said the matches will have four quarters of 17 minutes and 30 seconds each instead of the present two halves.

Number of players will be reduced during extra time which will change the dynamics of the play drastically and improve the efficiency of the boys, he said.

On composition of teams, Gill said "we tried to balance all the sides giving opportunity to youngsters and also the seniors who are in 30s to prove themselves. Things will be clear after we release the Tier-II list at Lucknow shortly."

Tier-I (Premier Division) matches will be held here while Tier-II (First Division) matches will be held at Lucknow.

The league will be played in a round robin format with all teams playing each other twice. Winner in the stipulated time will get three points for each victory while the team winning in extra time will share the points 2:1.